Rummaging through the articles (and pictures) I found about mourning jewelry, a thought came to my head: why don't we still practice the same mourning traditions as they did before? Are we being disrespectful to the dead? Why does a simple funeral and burial suffice in today's terms? Or is it assumed that we are honoring the deceased by solely remembering?
Now I understand that the mourning process could be a tinge extensive at times (depending on who you lost), but isn’t it practiced out of respect and love for the person? Do we not hold the same standards of respect for our relative as they have in the past? I mean, from my personal experiences, we basically put people in the ground and forget about it. You wear your “mourning clothes” (or black/dress apparel) for one day, but after that go back to normal. What makes today’s world any different from back then? Why don’t we have a separate wardrobe to honor our cherished? It may seem materialistic, but it is all out of respect and honor.
With all of that being said, I do know that you can get diamonds made from the ash remains of the person you are commemorating for today’s version of mourning jewelry. Although I assume that you would wear it every day, so it does not have the same exclusiveness. Still, it is the same concept.
I bet you’re wondering what this has to do with my jewelry blog anyway… I just found myself drawn to the fact that people have used certain jewelry - as well as dress, social events, etc. - for expressing their greif and nothing else. That is its sole purpose, to visually display what the person is experiencing.
I think that we do still mourn by visiting graves or having urns on the mantle. It is interesting to see how the methods of mourning have changed. I think that we are more private in our mourning in this society. Clothes and jewelry seams to be more of a public statement.
ReplyDelete-Jim Eischen